Google has now confirmed there was a refresh late Friday affected less than 1% of queries. Google said, "Panda data refresh started rolling out on Friday. Less than 1% of queries noticeably affected in the U.S. & 1% worldwide." We saw reports of this over the weekend and reported on those rumors. Google has confirmed there was an update.
Over the weekend there was a large spike in webmaster and SEO chatter at WebmasterWorld around Google's shift in the search results.
Update: Google has now confirmed there was a refresh late Friday affected less than 1% of queries. Here is their tweet from today:
FYI Panda data refresh started rolling out on Friday. Less than 1% of queries noticeably affected in the U.S. & 1% worldwide
— A Googler (@google) June 11, 2012
Many are suspecting there was a Panda update but we do not (DO NOT) have confirmation from Google on this update. In fact, there were rumors early about a Panda update and Google shot us down on that.
If there was an update, which honestly, there are strong signs of, this would be the Panda 3.7 update. The last Panda refresh was Panda 3.6 on April 27th so we are due a new Panda refresh any time now.
There was a Penguin 1.1 update on May 25th or so. So this shuffling is probably Panda related.
One webmaster said:
It could be another Panda update, I have been working on a client site to help him escape Panda. His rankings have just jumped back up to Top 3 on his major keywords where he used to be before Panda got him 2 months ago. So these recent fluctuation and Thursday night events might be Panda.
Past Panda Updates:
- Panda 3.6 on April 27th
- Panda 3.5 on April 19th
- Panda 3.4 on March 23rd
- Panda 3.3 on about February 26th
- Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
- Panda 3.1 on November 18th
- Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
- Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
- Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
- Panda 2.5 on September 28th
- Panda 2.4 in August
- Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
- Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
- Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
- Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
- Panda 1.0 on February 24th
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
